Can paid games made by Africans make any money?
Yes, it seems.
Meet Virago, to be precise, Virago: Naked Reality.
A paid game in the Virago line of games, retailing at Ksh 300 in the Google Play store and $2.99 in the Apple App store.
On the Google Play store, the paid app has 1k plus downloads, to get here the app made Ksh 300,000 on the lower side. We haven’t yet factored in sales from the Apple store.
At some point the app sold 400+ copies in a single day on the Apple App Store and was position 10 on the list of Top paid apps in the US right beside the likes of Angry Birds.
This is not even the icing on this cake, collectively the Virago games once got 300K downloads in a month with the paid game hitting a high of $1k – $1.5k in monthly recurring revenue during its peak performance period.
The other Virago games are: Virago Run, Virago Herstory, Virago Trepidation and Virago Herstory 2.
How does this happen?
Meet Sunday Akor. Creator of Virago and CEO Honest Chronicle.
Sunday is a Nigerian self-taught mobile games developer and a social media marketing guru.
Sunday started working on Virago while he was still 18 years old and a student.
He had to balance between school work and game development and at some point game development began to take a toll on matters school.
But like every other successful entrepreneur, the product must see the light of day.
At its core the game is based around the challenges experienced by women in their 21st century daily lives.
Playing Virago is like watching a real life movie unfold on a device and you are a part of it, a mix of the modern day emotional cycles that play out on X (formerly Twitter) depicting a lot of the stories that we see on the news or hear from friends when chilling out.
The game is based around the main character Willow who has to overcome some pretty tough times and challenges as the game progresses.
Even so, more than just a good storyline and great game play, Virago got to where it is because of Akor’s marketing efforts.
He took advantage of Tiktok with short videos showcasing the stories within the game and shortly afterwards delved into Instagram and now YouTube shorts.
On Tiktok viragogame has 676.5K followers and 24.3 million likes with multiple videos doing more than 500k views.
The YouTube channel dedicated to Virago (@ViragoGame) now has 46.6K subscribers and has more than 13 million views collectively.
Key takeaway: Content is king and content moves product, even digital products.
Sunday Akor has mastered the art of using short video content on social media to promote his games.
His new title Velithra, is in development and is likely another hit in the making.
Product Spotlight: MyMovies.Africa
Just when you thought streaming was getting a little too crowded in Kenya with Netflix, DSTV, Showmax, YouTube… another really great alternative for your popcorn time appears.
The good thing about MyMoviesAfrica is that the content they provide is pretty hyper-localized and gives you a chance to delve into great content by great African film makers.
If Sarafina is one you have never forgotten about then BANGARANG will be just as much a thrill to watch and many more on offer on the platform.
You can watch movies in Dholuo, action or crime inspired movies, true story inspired movies and there’s even something for the kids when you want to sit quietly and work as they are distracted for a few hours.
You can rent movies on the platform for Ksh 99 for 7 days or own for life for Ksh 499.
Try it out today.
Cool Finds:
🤑 How Tibo Louis-Lucas went from bankruptcy to an eight-figure exit.
💸 Monetize your content through affiliate programs.
👩🏾💻 The simplest way to host & share your web project.
📚 A simple way to remember your past bookmarks.
Thank you for reading this far. Tell a friend to subscribe.
